Reborn in 1981, starting by smashing my iron rice bowl.

While riding his bicycle, Hao Jianjun asked Liu Weidong, "Brother Weidong, there are quite a few families in our village that raise chickens and lay eggs. Why don't we start by replacing chickens in the village first?"

In Hao Jianjun's view, exchanging grain coupons for eggs was a profitable business for farmers. Given this, shouldn't they prioritize approaching fellow villagers? Why did Liu Weidong go to other villages first?

"Kid, you're still too naive!" Liu Weidong glanced at Hao Jianjun and said, "If our village chief Wang Deli finds out about this money-making scheme, what do you think he'll do?"

Hao Jianjun slapped his forehead and said, "You know what, you really shouldn't believe it, if that money-grubber finds out, he'll definitely interfere and stop us from doing this!"

"That's why this absolutely cannot be done in our village!" Liu Weidong reminded Hao Jianjun, "Besides, Zhao Baojun and Luo Gang were just sentenced, and Zhao Baojun's mother, in particular, hates me so much. So we absolutely cannot let anyone in the village know about this!"

Hao Jianjun immediately said seriously, "Brother Weidong, don't worry, I promise I won't say a word when I get back, not even if my dad asks me!"

Knowing that his good brother might be a bit slow-witted, but was absolutely trustworthy, Liu Weidong nodded in satisfaction and said, "Alright, as long as you know what's going on, let's go to Xiaowangzhuang and try our luck!"

The two soon arrived at Xiaowangzhuang. Many elderly people, seeing two unfamiliar young men in the village, looked at them warily.

Hao Jianjun had never encountered this situation before, and he immediately felt very flustered, not knowing what to do for a moment.

Liu Weidong, who had seen many grand occasions in his previous life, was different. He greeted an older woman wearing a red armband in a friendly manner: "Auntie, are you sewing shoe soles? Wow, these soles are so beautifully sewn. Look at how dense and even the stitches are. These shoes will definitely be comfortable to wear!"

These words struck a chord with the older woman, and a smile appeared on her face: "You have good taste, young man. Are you here in Xiaowangzhuang looking for someone or doing something?"

Liu Weidong smiled and said to the old woman, "We've come to exchange eggs. Do you know anyone in our village who's willing to do it?"

In those days, many people went to the countryside to exchange grain coupons for eggs. The old lady immediately became interested, stopped what she was doing, and asked in a low voice, "How did you exchange them?"

Liu Weidong told the old woman, "Three jin of grain coupons can be exchanged for one jin of eggs!"

The older woman immediately objected, frowning as she said, "Young man, you're not being honest. Others exchange four jin of grain coupons for one jin of eggs!"

Liu Weidong laughed and said, "Auntie, those people only have provincial grain coupons, but I'm using national grain coupons!"

Back then, a grain coupon in the province was worth about 30 cents per pound. Four pounds of grain coupons could be exchanged for one pound of eggs, which was 1.2 yuan per pound. This was 20 cents or 30 cents more than selling them to the supply and marketing cooperative, so many farmers were willing to exchange their eggs for grain coupons.

National grain coupons could be sold for 50 cents a pound, so even if you only exchanged for three pounds, that would still be 1.5 yuan. So the old lady immediately asked Liu Weidong, "Young man, are you kidding me?"

"How could I lie to you!" Liu Weidong pulled out several national grain coupons from his pocket and said, "Look, I brought all the grain coupons with me. We'll take as many eggs as you have!"

"Okay, you wait here, I'll go back and get the eggs!" The woman picked up the shoe soles and hurriedly left, returning shortly with a small basket of eggs.

Since the eggs were being exchanged for grain coupons, Liu Weidong had made preparations, including both the boxes for the eggs and the steelyard for weighing them.

Liu Weidong weighed the grain in front of the old woman and said to her straightforwardly, "Two jin and nine liang, I'll just say three jin for you. Here are nine jin of grain coupons, please keep them safe!"

Actually, the woman had weighed the eggs at home and knew they didn't weigh three pounds. Liu Weidong readily agreed without making a fuss, which made her very happy. So she offered to tell the other neighbors so they could all come and exchange eggs.

Liu Weidong, of course, would not refuse the old lady's kindness and immediately agreed.

The woman quickly left, and soon villagers began to come looking for Liu Weidong. Knowing he was willing to exchange three jin of national grain coupons for one jin of eggs, everyone's enthusiasm soared, and they all went home to get eggs to exchange with Liu Weidong.

Liu Weidong and Hao Jianjun were busy for a while, exchanging more than half of the more than 300 jin of national grain coupons they brought, and the two of them also got more than 50 jin of eggs.

These days, there were no styrofoam boxes, so transporting eggs was a problem. So after deciding to switch to eggs, Liu Weidong sacrificed a cotton quilt at home and had Wang Shujuan make several cotton pads from it.

First, place a cotton pad at the bottom of the box, then add a layer of eggs. Next, add another cotton pad on top of the eggs, and then another layer of eggs. This shock-absorbing measure will prevent the eggs from breaking during transport.

Hao Jianjun helped Liu Weidong put the eggs down, and said with a big smile, "Hey, Brother Weidong, we've traded over fifty catties of eggs in this whole village! A catty of eggs can sell for one yuan and thirty or forty cents in the market now, and we've made seventy or eighty yuan in just half a day. This business is really too good to be true!"

Hao Jianjun really has absolutely no business sense. He's only focused on calculating the value of the eggs, completely ignoring the fact that the national grain coupons he exchanged also have a cost. If he were to run the business alone, he'd definitely lose everything, down to his underwear!

However, for Liu Weidong, the grain coupons he exchanged for eggs were indeed free, so Hao Jianjun's success was somewhat accidental.

Of course, Liu Weidong knew he absolutely couldn't tell anyone about this, but he said to Hao Jianjun with dissatisfaction, "Changing eggs like this is too slow, we have to find a way to speed it up!"

You see, Liu Weidong had several thousand kilograms of national grain coupons, enough to exchange for two or three thousand kilograms of eggs. If the two of them were to exchange for only a few dozen kilograms of eggs each day, when would they ever use up all their grain coupons? Once the weather warms up, Liu Weidong has other business to do; he doesn't have that much time to waste on eggs!

So Liu Weidong asked Hao Jianjun to sell eggs at the county market, while he himself planned to go to an old friend—Ma Yongxian, the village chief of Gonggeng Village—to see if he could solve the problem of insufficient egg supply.

Knowing that Comrade Liu from the machinery factory had come again, Ma Yongxian hurriedly came out to greet him, warmly welcoming him with a big smile, saying, "Comrade Liu, what brings you here this time?"

Looking at this honest-looking man with a simple and honest appearance, Liu Weidong felt a little guilty for deceiving him time and time again.

However, this slight guilt wouldn't change Liu Weidong's mind. He immediately smiled and said, "I don't come here unless I need something. It's just that the machinery factory has encountered difficulties again, so I've come to ask Village Chief Ma for help!"

Ma Yongxian asked in bewilderment, "I'm just a small village head, how could I possibly help a large state-owned factory solve its problems?"

"This wouldn't be possible without Village Chief Ma!" Liu Weidong first flattered Ma Yongxian, then said seriously, "Our factory manager wanted to give the workers some eggs as a benefit, but he didn't know where to get so many eggs. You were the first person I thought of!"